Morning Y'all

Okay, so here is my final post as Ani Witter/aka my alter-ego

I quit because I got a raise at my other job. Therefore, I no longer need the extra money at the strip club to survive. But mostly, I got a huge push-back from my community of friends because I was working at the strip club.

For multiple reasons...

So here is what I heard from people...

1)It's demeaning
2)It's wrong
3)The club is taking too much cut from the girls earnings
4)If you keep working here, you will become like them
5)People working here can't have meaningful relationships
6)It will ruin your future career
7)The descent into this community is a bend and not a break.
8) GROSS

Let me address all of these issues. Here is what I have to say.

1) It's demeaning

I have worked many many jobs and I see no difference stuffing envelopes for 5 hours a day as any less demeaning as cleaning a stage as a waitress at strip club. Just saying. It's a useless job that someone has to do. You just have to wear a different outfit to do it.

2) It's wrong.

My first response to this is.... how? I'm sorry. I don't understand. People are sexual beings. Everyone has their kicks or what they want. No better or no worse than any other (bar pedophilia). This is just a place that accepts it. That accepts kicks and kinks. And frankly, what I've realized from working here is that lots and lots of people have strange frickin fetishes and kinks. They just don't talk about it. Thank you world for showing me.

And for the people reading this blog, let me tell you. You are normal. You are completely and totally normal. All of you. (I've seen it all). Because there are all types out there. Just figure out what you want and be okay with it. Maybe communicate it with your spouse. Ten bucks says they are okay with it too. This means you my favorite CEO's. Religious clergy, Political scientists, Artists, Writers, Scientists, PR folks, Musicians, Programers, Insurance people, Lawyers, Professors, IT gurus, Counselors, Professors, Teachers, Executives, Peace Corps workers, Nurses, CNA's, Doctors, Anthropologists, Archaeologists, Game designers, Linguists, Architects, Service Men and Women, Farmers, Actresses, Actors, Captains, Bouncers, Strippers, Waitresses, Receptionists, Paralegals, Travelers, HR Representatives and all the many more of you out there who I know and love...

(There are so many more of you. P.S. All of you)

I will never tell who you are or what your secrets are. But I just want you to know that you are normal. Seriously, you are normal. Maybe tell your spouse. Personally, I'm not a fan of secrets.

But in case you are wondering, (Mostly) yes I know your secrets. And I love you anyway. Maybe more for your imperfections. So does everyone else. And no one cares.

3) The Club is taking too much from the girls earnings

Washington State does not allow alcohol in strip clubs. So, the club has to charge more from the girls' earnings than any other state in order to make up for the lack of revenue.

But yep. I think clubs totally exploit women for the money they earn. However, the clubs provide the women a 'safer' place than they would have otherwise. There are bouncers who I personally know and trust to throw their life on the line to protect. No matter what. God bless you amazing amazing guys.

The managers are under pressure to earn more money. So, they have to exploit the girls in order to keep their jobs. So, if you are going to blame anyone. Blame the corporation itself. Blame the owners who enact the rules and regulations to keep money flowing. Don't blame the poor girls who did whatever they could to earn money. Blame the CEO's who control it.

4) If you keep working here you will become like them (The strippers that is)

Let me tell ya.
Strippers are just like any other person. They are just people. Some kind, some smart, some mean...etc. These girls have just been exposed to this life and they embraced it.


If you feel you are special because you have learned something like religious work or IT or programming, or anything else meaningful.... let me tell you. You have been lucky enough to have been born to a family to provide you with that (or support you with that) or else been lucky enough to have been born in an area that supports that. Regardless of what you might think of your family or your area. You were.

Everyone is capable of learning.... anything. It just depends on where you were born or if you had enough to eat, if your family was somewhat functional or if you were lucky enough to have someone to believe in you (And many more factors). Regardless of what you might think of your family, if you are reading this post, you were lucky to have something more. DO NOT FORGET THAT.

You were loved.

5) People working here can't have meaningful relationships

Bullshit. Your lover or love of your life should meet you in your crazy and the hardship (my friend who worked in a dive of a motel where there was some hard core cheating.... I'm looking at you) Y'all know what I'm talking about. Love is what it is. It doesn't matter where you are (For the most part)

Even if it's checking people into motels to cheat or waiting people at a strip club or dancing on them for money.

You and your partner will meet each other in honesty and truth. No matter what that entails. Some of you might be okay with strip clubs. Some of you might be into open relationships. Some of you might not. That's okay. Just be honest with each other. Just always tell the truth. No one will know your own relationship better than yourself.

But just for the record.

KEEP THAT SHIT AS PRIVATE A POSSIBLE.

Just keep it private. Even if it's with an ex. Just keep is private. I'm serious. It should not and does not need to be shared.

6) It will ruin your future career

This is true. No questions asked. If you want to become a stripper, you must register as a sex worker. And that check could possibly ruin your career.

7) The descent into this community is a bend and not a break.

Truth. Adapting to any community is not a break. It's a bend. It's a slow slow bend. So be careful who you surround yourself with. Absolutely anything in life is a bend...not a break whether that is atheism, religion, work, drinking/partying, stoners, red-necks, liberals, Republicans, Hungarians, Germans, Koreans, Americans, intellectualism, readers, writers, microsoft workers, SMA-ers, strippers, waitresses, politicians, intellectuals.... etc.

Let me tell ya, it doesn't matter. It is just what you are born into/ what you are exposed to.

So, be careful what you are exposed to and who you surround yourself with. Because people are people. All flawed and perfect at the same time. All worth loving.

8) GROSS

Pardon? What's gross? I don't understand.


Strip clubs are an industry just like any other. The only unfortunate thing about strip clubs is that it isn't a sustainable career. Most strippers must retire before 35... 40 if they are lucky. For the rest of us, we will be able to retire much later in life and for the most part have a sustainable income for the vast majority of our time here.

Strippers are not into it. It's a job just like any other. They work hard at it. Just as hard as you and me. The only thing is that it is more acceptable for them to do drugs and drink to forget about the pain of not doing their job well. To forget about the rejection. Cause let's face it.... everyone makes mistakes at their job.  It's just more okay for them to do drugs and drink. It's not for us.

If you have questions or wish for me to elaborate, let me know. I'll expand.

Fetishes

So, a few weeks ago while outside smoking with some of the strippers, I asked a veteran dancer the craziest thing she had ever seen in the industry. 

She stopped to think for a moment before telling me that in Vegas there used to be a gentleman who had a fetish for drinking urine. So, he would ask the girls to pee in a cup every time they used the bathroom and would pay them 500 bucks every time they did it. 

Another time there was a guy who had fetish for spit. So, he asked this girl to dance for him for $1000 but she had to spit into his mouth. So, they were on the couch...She on top of him with his head upturned and mouth open wide like a baby bird waiting for her to spit into his mouth. She gently spit a bit into his mouth and continued to dance. He stopped her immediately and told her that that was not good enough.

He then told her to really loog it up and spit a great big fat phlegmy one into his mouth. Like a great big nasty spit. So, she coughed up a nasty ass loogie and spit into his mouth. He then swished it around in his mouth like he was savoring a glass of wine, swallowed it and moved onto another girl to have her do the same thing. 

The dancer continued to tell stories about things  she had experienced in the industry. Some men have a fetish for rubbing legs or elbows. Some men love making out with her armpit. Other men want to wear her underwear. She laughingly joked about the strange fetishes that men have but continued to say that now she really enjoyed the fetishes because after 15 years in the industry, she has become so bored by the normal stuff.

Good Morning,

It's 4:43AM. I just got home from work at the strip club. 

So, I quit waitressing for  awhile because I got an office job. And I didn't think they would think highly of me working at a strip club. It's been a couple of months since I've worked but now I'm back moonlighting as a waitress. 

What my office doesn't know, does not hurt them.

Honestly, I've missed it. I've missed getting dressed a lil slutty, working my ass off, being flirtatious and getting paid for it. It's more fun than going out to a bar for sure. Then again, I work at one of the best strip clubs. I'm pretty sure I would hate working at a strip club that didn't have some of the most beautiful women in the world.

Since my return, I have noticed that a lot of the coke heads are gone. Most of the girls stick to good ol' fashioned THC and booze. 

So, tonight Macklemore came into the strip club. I have to say it was pretty interesting to watch him get lap dances. He practices what he preaches. He was definitely dressed as if he was in the music video to Thrift Shop. All I really noticed was the large white hat that he was wearing. I was serving drinks in the VIP rooms and I kept walking past the private room he was in and sneaking glances at him. 

At one point, he was standing in the hallway looking at his phone outside of his private room, and I walked past him. Literally inches away from him. I really wanted to ask him for a photo but he looked so normal. So human and vulnerable that I didn't want to bother him. Honestly, he seems like a very passionate, strong and sensitive dude. I can't imagine being a celebrity. I think it would be terrible to have people faun all over you, when all you want is to be 100 percent yourself and express everything that you are. I think being a celebrity would be so limiting. And hard. 

After just seeing him for a moment, I have to say that I am impressed. Not for one second do I think he is a sleezebag or a douche. He seems very real. 

Cheers Macklemore. You have my respect.

Also, after he left, I was cleaning the room he was in and may have stolen the towel that I think he was sitting on.

That's not creepy...right? 

Coke and Hookers

It's been a long time since I've written anything. There has been so much going on that I haven't been able to process it all.

At first, I really thought that everything in the strip club was just pg-13. I mean, it certainly isn't a disney film but I never thought that anything worse was going on.

I was so wrong.

My first glance was when a stripper stole thousands off of a customer. It's a long story but for him, it wasn't really that much money. It was pocket cash. He wasn't that upset.

This gentleman is quite possibly the most interesting looking man I have ever seen. He is around 7 feet tall, large boned, large brown eyes and almost always wears a suit. (I'll leave his name out to respect privacy) He comes in quite regularly, and I assumed he was just very nerdy and very nice.

A few weeks ago, he offered me coke which I have never even seen before. I've never even been around people who do coke. I don't even know what people look like when they are on drugs. He offered all the strippers coke and other drugs as well. I declined his offer... just for the record.
What was alarming to me was not that he was doing coke or that the strippers were doing coke. I was alarmed by the openness of it and the acceptance of it, even by some of the management. In fact, it was beyond acceptance, it was almost welcomed by management and everyone else.

I am having a hard time forming my thoughts to make a coherent story about this. So, I'm just going to give up and write what I saw and think and everything in between.

One of the strippers (named Jasmine from the Disney movie) who did coke with this tall gentleman later told me that she had been homeless before this.

Another stripper named Georgia told me she was addicted to Oxycodone. All of her money from stripping went to support her habit.
Georgia said, "I should have known better. My ex-boyfriend was addicted to heroin and I saw what it did. I should have known better."
There was a pause in the conversation as I sat there silently dragging on my cigarette.
"I'm sorry if I just made this awkward," she said.

I honestly thought that I would judge drug addicts and prostitutes if I ever met them but what I feel instead is an overwhelming pity. And an overwhelming gratefulness that God gave me a better life and a future. My mother was far from being a perfect mother but she loved me, in her own way. And I am so grateful for that. I am so grateful. And so sorry for these women. My heart breaks for them. Some of these women are legitimately kind women who could have had a different life.
I realize that none of us have life figured out. None of us have the answer. But I don't believe that coke and drug addictions and homelessness are any kind of way to live and be happy.


In another day, I found out that some of the girls are turning tricks. I shouldn't be shocked but I was. I mean, I am often propositioned at the club. I always say no. I should have known that it really happens. But I didn't. I didn't think for a second that it really did happen.
And again, what's even more surprising is that no one cares. If you have the money, you can get away with anything. I see major CEO's coming in and buying a girl. They aren't careful with their name and are open about the fact that they are married and have mistresses and whores. No one cares. Because if you fuck with them, you die.
FOR REAL. I had no idea this actually happens in real life. I really just had no idea.

I honestly thought that this kind of thing only happens in movies or T.V.  I'm not sure that I wanted to know.

For years, I have had this fantasy of someday getting married and only being intimate with that person for the rest of my life. And them only being with me and neither of us wanting to be with anyone else. I don't know that I can ever believe in that again. I don't understand why people get married only to cheat, sleep with hookers and go to strip clubs. Am I the only one who's heart is broken by this?

I don't understand.


~Ani

Amateur Stripper

Hi!

Last night was amateur night at the strip club. Also, the hard body waitress contest. What that means is that the waitresses have to get up on stage and dance. Clothing is optional. I had no idea until I got to work.

I'm a waitress. So, I had to get up on stage and dance. It was mortifying. I'm pretty sure I made an ass of myself but everyone was too nice to say anything mean. Oh well, it was an experience and I got some nice singles thrown at me. 

One guy kind of was really into me after my stage dance though. He kept asking me to give him a lap dance and become a stripper. It piqued my curiosity about stripping and I asked management what it would take for me to become a stripper. First of all, I would have to pay hundreds of dollars to get my stripper's license. Then, every night that I dance, I have to pay the club 150 a night just to let me dance. And there is no guarantee that I would make any money. I might just end up owing the club lots and lots of money. One girl told me that she only made twelve dollars last night. 

Meh. It doesn't sound worth it. 

One of the girls taught me a little bit about stripping, how to talk to customers, how to ignore petty bullshit from other strippers, how to flirt and how to make money. Let me just say that she is beautiful and she was so nice! She gave me a demonstration lap dance to teach me how to do it. Oh my gosh, it was hot! She should have been a model. Her body is amazing. She is the clubs top dancer and I think I know why. She is a flash dancer, which means she only shows a little for a little time. She teases. 

Anyway, I'm definitely not going to become a stripper. Mostly because it doesn't seem to be a financially stable job. 

Management has been very clear that nothing illegal happens at the club. No drugs and no prostitution. So, far I believe them. I haven't seen anything illegal at the club. But, I'm starting to wonder what happens outside of the club...

I overheard some of the girls talking about how one of their customers took them on a shopping trip earlier today. This guy spend thousands of dollars on this shopping trip, taking these girls to Nordstrom and Macy to buy them shoes, clothing and other accessories. I kind of doubt that they are just stripping for this guy. 

There are a couple of strippers that make thousands almost every night. One of the girls, let's call her Reba, is an artist when it comes to pole dancing. Reba climbs to the top of the pole, twists, turns, strips, hangs upside down and dances her way back down to the bottom of the pole. I can't even begin to describe what she does but its amazing. People are always so impressed that they shower her with cash. The waitstaff have to stand by the side of the stage with trash cans to help her collect the money from the stage. When she is done with a performance, she sensually rolls around the stage while people 'make it rain'. Lights flash, the fog fills the stage and all you can see is this beautiful naked woman, rubbing her hands over her body, with money showing above her and covering her. 

It's seriously amazing to watch. 

I tend to not be that popular with the customers. The only people that seem to like me are really down to earth people. Like groups of friends who come in just to experience a strip show. The regular customers aren't really that impressed with me. And here is the problem with that. The down to earth people don't tip as much as the regular customers. I've got to figure out how to stay classy and yet, make more tips. 

One guy last night told me that he wasn't going to make a move on me but that he thought I was the most beautiful girl in the room and that all the other girls in the room were ho's. I wasn't really sure how to respond to him. I thanked him, told him he was sweet and walked away. Anyway, this guy proves my point about the money thing. This guy didn't tip me at all.

Anyway, moral of the story, if you walk into a strip club tonight and there is a really nice waitress who is maybe too enthusiastic about asking you if you want a drink, give her a big tip. She has a ton of student loans that she needs to pay. 

~Ani

First Night

Hi,

First night at the strip club. I made 50 in tips. I gave 8 to the bartender. I'm not sure if that was enough or if I should have given more. I'm going to have to look up how much to tip out a bartender. 

Fun Fact: Alcohol is illegal in my state's strip clubs. So, we only serve soda and Redbull. I'm not sure what the point of a bartender is when you are only serving coke products. I'm guessing it's just another excuse to have another scantily clad beautiful woman in the room. 

One guy grabbed my ass and told me that I had an ass that black men like. I'm not going to lie, I actually liked it. And I'm embarrassed to admit it but it felt good to be admired. Even if it was also somewhat sleazy and cheap. Another man, took my hand and told me that I was absolutely gorgeous. There were other men who tried to flirt with me and talk with me but  honestly, I really wasn't interested in flirting with anyone who wasn't going to tip. I'm not at a bar to flirt for free. I'm at work and I need to make money to pay off my huge student loans. Seriously, though, I have to come up with 250 bucks in about a week to pay off one of my students loans. I'm hoping I can make enough money to make the payment on time. 

Some of the men barely acknowledged my presence though. Early in the night, there were two middle aged business men who came in and looked incredibly uncomfortable when I asked them if they would like something to drink. One of them looked at me and did a double take. I swear I could hear him thinking "She looks like she is my daughters age". 

They tried to ignore me for the rest of the night. I'm guessing it is slightly uncomfortable to enjoy a strip show and lap dance when a girl who reminds you of your daughter is near by. Still, that uncomfortable business guy gave me a huge tip. I am not sure if he actually was impressed with my service or if he was trying to ease his conscience in some way. 

Anyway, it's past noon, I've just woken up and it's time to make some coffee and then go for a run.

~Ani

Got a Job

Hi,

Today is my first day working at a strip club. I'm going to be training to be a waitress tonight. It's 5:30 pm and it's time to start getting ready. This will start with a shower, toweling off, putting lotion on to keep my skin soft and then I'll put a robe on. The next step in the process is to put my makeup on... foundation, powder, blush, eyeliner, mascara, lipstick and lipgloss to make my lips look extra sensual. After the makeup up, it's time to do my hair. Blowdrying and then curling or straightening my hair. I'm slow at curling hair, so this takes me 45 minutes to an hour.

God, this is boring to write about and writing doesn't even begin to describe the time and effort it takes.
On an average day, this process takes about an hour. But that doesn't include the time I take to tweeze and shape my eyebrows(Another 15-20 minutes). And then there is my morning workout. I start with 20 minutes of jumping rope and then a 2 mile run. After that, I do crunches, push ups, stair steps and stretching. It takes me 3 hours to get ready to go to work.

Just for the record, I may sound like I'm a body builder but I'm really not. I have a pretty average build, I think. I'm 5'2 120 lbs and I've got curves. Oh, I'm blonde by the way. And yes, it is dyed. It's naturally a dark blonde/light brown but I've dyed it to a much lighter shade.

Okay. It's 5:47. I really have to stop writing and start getting ready. Otherwise, I may not be ready to leave for work at 8 pm.

~Ani